#nace drabble

[voidsteffy]

Do You Like Secrets?

Read on ao3

Plans had been made for the next day, and the team meeting had come to a silent end. George and Nick were marinating in tense silence, and Bess couldn't help but make it awkward with her usual nerve-wracked hums. Ace had been uncharacteristically inactive for the past hour.

As the group of friends disbanded, Nancy glanced at Ace who had just bid goodbye to Bess for the night.

Her hands were clutched tightly to the strip of worn cloth on her satchel. Her eyes searching for something in his eyes.

George and Nick were stuck in another unusual argument, not even noticing as they slipped out.

Ace's hand was a warm ghostly imprint on the small of her back, one that she leaned into like a butterfly leaned into a sac of nectar.

"I'm sorry Ace..." she tilted her head.

"For what?"

Nancy sighed, "For... everything. I should have been with you today. I should have solved that cipher when you asked. I should have—"

His finger on her lip put a stop to all voice from her throat. She looked at him, straight into his eyes that were inches away from hers. There was one moment between them where it all melted away, the whole world was just background noise and his blues were all that mattered.

That moment didn't last long. He fumbled, his finger leaving her full lips as he staggered backward. "Um, it's alright Nancy. You were busy, I get it."

As they descended the stairs, their limbs insecurely to themselves, Nancy couldn't help but internally lament. No, it was not okay. No, he didn't get it. Nancy could figure out that cipher in barely twenty seconds, but she didn't stop to help Ace because she was scared of staying with him for longer than she had to. She was a coward who was hiding behind all her other mysteries rather than face her feelings for Ace. She left him behind and because of that, he was short one person to be on his side when he went to the Library.

Ace was the one who hacked for her from a freezer with a bunch of bones in his hands while he could have been raided by the police. Ace was the one who saved her, held her baby self on the bluffs when she entrusted her most vulnerable fragment to him.

"Why didn't you ask me to stay and help you?"

It had been a big day for him. He almost risked his life going there alone, God knew how Captain reacted to it all.

"Nancy..."

"If you'd just sent me a message, given me some sort of heads-up! I could've been there, you wouldn't have been there alone!"

"Well I was, okay?" Ace snapped. Though his brows were furrowed, there was a resignation in his voice. He still opened the door to the outside. Horseshoe Bay's cold breeze hit them in the face as they put one foot in front of the other, their shoulders touching each other with each sway.

They reached her car faster than she wanted to, apprehension and unspoken broken promises still lingering in the looks between them. The streetlight shed golden light on Ace;

Nancy was struck by how vulnerable he suddenly looked: hair unkempt, lips red from the skin bitten again and again, eyes red rimmed, jaw taut with all that had happened.

She sighed. "...Are you okay, Ace?"

They leaned against her Mustang on the night street. They had no prying eyes, no fighting friends or parents.

Ace struggled to answer. He pinched his elbow, head downcast before he took a large gulp of salty air.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to," Nancy put in, "Just tell me what I can do."

"Do you like secrets Nancy?"

"What?"

Did she like secrets? Who did? She was a secret all her life, a concern for the Hudsons if truth about her real parentage ever got out. She had a secret about her feelings right now. Secrets were poisonous vestiges of secluded reality, yet they gave one a sick sense of belonging.

"I... don't think I have a good history with them." she supplied.

"I hate 'em. What good did they ever do? It's not my fault that he builds walls around himself. How else was I supposed to know about him?"

Nancy realized Ace was talking about Captain, how he kept all his times as a US Marshal closed off to his son like it was a period of sin.

"What did he say?"

"Nothing!" Ace burst out, "He said nothing and didn't let me say anything to her either. I just don't understand, why does he push me away so much, what does he not want me to know? If he really wanted me out of the house then why would he pretend to tolerate me all these years?"

Nancy frowned, "Wait, your father wanted you out of the house?"

"Practically shoved the order in my face." Ace grumbled.

"Where are you staying then?"

"Nick was generous enough to let me stay for a while. It's the only peaceful place that had extra space to crash."

As if to mock his arrangements, George's sharp shout rang out right above them, Nick's desperate pleas following right after. Angry silhouettes danced on the windows of the first floor.

"Yeah maybe I'll sleep down in the YC, heard the couch is pretty warm..."

"Why don't you come stay with me?" The offer had tumbled out of her lips before she could stop herself. "I-I mean... The couch is pretty warm there too. Plus there's dinner."

She wanted to sew her eyes shut at the eagerness that coloured her voice. She'd have to learn to just go with it, looked like her feelings weren't ebbing away anytime soon.

"George? George do not walk away from me, George! C'mon!"

Ace stilled for a moment, finally accepting Nancy's offer. Bess would either be shacking up with Addy or eating up the occult books at the Historical Society.

"Thanks, it'll just be one night. I promise."

Nancy buried a sardonic smile at his statement. Never had she thought she'd hear that from Ace.

"Think Ryan would mind if I left the Porsche here for Florence?"

"He counted on it."

A part of the sadness was relieved from his eyes; at least he had Florence.

Nancy waited for him to fill in the silence. She had been the one to speak for the past hour during the meeting, wouldn't hurt to let him feel comfortable with his own voice.

"Would Mr. D be okay with me staying though?"

Nancy recalled the memory of how Carson had called her, worried about Ace and pulling threads to call upon people in the PD to help Ace.

"Ace, he's more than okay with it."

He was almost till the door of the Youth Centre building to get his stuff when Nancy's voice made him stop.

"Hey tech billionaire, what do you want for dinner?"

He smiled, his back still to her as he tried to visualise the image of the voice. She must have been still leaning on the hood of her car, legs crossed on the pavement at the ankles right where her skinny jeans ended in a loose cusp. Her hair billowing a timid orange under the streetlight and just the slightest hint of mirth on the edge of her full lips.

"Whatever the best detective in Maine is having."

[aces-drew]

we fall in love 'til it hurts or bleeds (post 2x12 nace fic)

author : acesdrxw (find me on ao3 here)

fandom : nancy x ace (nace) from cw's nancy drew

word count : 1027 words

tags : angst hehe it's all just gut-wrenching angst lmao (but cathartic bc confrontation)

warnings : none

premise : nancy confronts ace after picking up on how off he'd been with her since his almost death at the paper-mill

Ace wasn’t ready to go home yet.

Watching his dad lose a part of his heart to regret after he’d met Grant, almost dying, gaining and losing a brother all in a 16-hour window had left a heavy weight on him, constricting his ribcage and tying knots onto his spine. The dread he felt at having to process all of it for himself and then having to talk to his father about it, having to come to terms that he’d mostly never get to see Grant again – his big brother, his only brother – had heavily worn him down in the brief time he’d had to hold onto all of it.

He took a deep breath, trying to quell inevitable tears as he sat on the bench in the Claw’s storeroom. He didn’t even realise Nancy had walked in until she spoke up behind him.

‘I’m sorry I hurt you.’

He took a second and composed himself before he turned to face her. She looked uncharacteristically apprehensive, and he didn’t necessarily blame her. Something about the two of them had shifted and it was unfailingly and uncomfortably evident.

‘Hurt me? Nancy people could die because of me, they’re the ones who could get hurt.’

It was difficult for Ace to keep an even tone, so he stood up to steady himself a little more. ‘Do we even know for sure that he didn’t send out the list of names to anyone? Was it really the best decision to even have taken that chance? And God Nancy, how did you even know Celia would do what you asked her? I just-’

Ace stopped himself, unwilling to say anything he would regret.

‘It wasn’t a favour, it was a deal.’ She replied.

‘What?’

She took her turn to ready herself with a shaky breath, worrying Ace more than anything. ‘Celia asked that I change my statement against Everett in court in return for catching Daniel West and keeping you safe.’ She said, looking away from him. ‘I agreed to the terms.’

His temples buzzed with adrenaline as he digested the words. He couldn’t really process what he was hearing as his mind raced a mile a minute, ‘What the actual hell Nancy? What were you thinkin-’

‘I couldn’t gamble your safety.’ Nancy interrupted, looking away again; finality etched in her tone. That was enough to effectively set him over the edge.

‘And yet you gambled your integrity?’ Ace felt sick; he couldn’t help but yell. He was now not only responsible for the possible murders of multiple people, but he was also the reason that Nancy had given up everything she’d believed in and worked for, the reason that a known murderer would walk free. ‘This isn’t who you are Nancy, this town trusts you to do the right thing, your dad trusted that you would do the right thing, you’re better than this!’

Nancy recovered just as fast as she’d flinched at his words. ‘Really? Am I? Because last time I checked, all of you were very comfortable with telling me how much of a Hudson I am, so guess what? I am a Hudson; I did what I had to.’ Nancy bit back. Ace couldn’t miss the sincerity that was absent in her tone.

He was so tired. ‘This wasn’t the right call Nancy, you fucked up… I wasn’t worth it.’ Ace tried to remove himself from seeing the way a part of her broke at how he didn’t fight for the decision she’d made to save his life, how he didn’t try to understand what that had cost her, how she was willing to do it anyway. But he could see that she saw him too, that she was also processing his side of things. Even if, just like him, she wasn’t willing to come to terms with what it implied for the two of them.

They studied each other until the silence got too heavy.

‘But it was my call to make. I couldn’t lose you.’ She gave up, looking right at him with tears threatening to fall. She was still scanning his face for some semblance of understanding, for some approval. When it didn’t come, she pulled her last straw, ‘Tell me that you wouldn’t have done the same for me.’

If it were anybody else, Ace would’ve become the pacifist right then. He would’ve put up the front he always did and manage all his feelings onto the backburner, letting everything go for the sake of preserving peace, convincing himself that he’d process it all himself and get over it. He would’ve forgiven it and swallowed the hurt and exhaustion he was feeling. He would’ve managed the anger he felt at her for asking him for an answer that would even mildly justify the clearly wrong decision she’d made – the decision to choose him. He would’ve looked away from her crystal blue eyes and arrested his case.

But with Nancy, against all his better rational judgment, he didn’t feel the need to reserve himself like he always did, he wanted to feel everything he was feeling in full force and overwhelm her with it too. Despite everything, it felt important to be honest with her, to liberate himself from holding back in the only way he could given their current circumstances – he wanted to be angry with her because he was angry with her.

Ace had decided on that much; tonight, he wasn’t going to give either of them the comfort of coming to terms with what she’d done because of him, of unpacking why she’d done it when there was so much – too much, to lose. He’d settled on it, ending the conversation.

‘Amanda is waiting for me. I’m heading out.’ Ace didn’t know why, but he knew that mentioning her was a cheap shot.

And that’s what he did. Before he saw Nancy’s tears, tears he knew would break him into a million more pieces than he’d already been broken into today, tears that would force him to deal with more than he could handle with everything he felt for and about her, he made his way out of the Bayside Claw.

[the-magnificunt]

Nace Valentine's Day, y'all!

It's looking like the season 3 finale might take place the Friday before Valentine's Day so I'm manifesting a Nace V Day. Headcanon time that turns into a bit of a drabble at the end! First, we've gonna empty out the Drew/Hudson house for Nancy

Carson is at Rosario's for a romantic dinner

Bess is at Addy's

Ryan is helping out at the youth center's V Day sleepover event that George insisted upon because she hates celebrating Valentine's (rails against commercial holidays)

Ace is single, obvs. He can't hold in his feelings anymore and has been hit over the head with people giving flowers and chocolates (that don't have hidden criminal messages on them) to people all day as he walks down the street and works at the Claw. He keeps seeing people making out everywhere he goes. His dad made his mom a special breakfast and they were being so sappy he left the house in disgust that morning.

He has been getting grumpier and grumpier throughout the day. He asks George during his shift when Nancy comes in and she tells him that Nancy asked to have the day off because she didn't want to deal with all the lovey dovey couples. Ace wishes he'd thought of that. He keeps thinking he sees her or hears her voice but it's never her when he turns around. By the end of his shift, he's ready to jump out of his skin, he's so anxious. It's getting dark and he gets in Florence. Ace turns on the music and zones out while he drives home. when he pulls over at the curb and starts to get out, he realizes he didn't drive home, but is parked in front of Nancy's house. He looks up and sees the light on in her bedroom window and thinks, "What the hell" and walks up to her door. maybe she's as frustrated as he is today and wants some company. He rings the doorbell and she answers it, wearing an old sweatshirt and looks more surprised to see him than he was to arrive at her house. She asks him what he's doing there and he tells her he doesn't know, just that he thought she might like some company. He suddenly feels a little shy, and starts to think maybe she was going to do something later with someone else. Someone like Park.

Now he feels awkward, and he starts to feel something else. Something he doesn't like. Something that feels like jealousy. Nancy tells him she'd love company and he trails in behind her and up to her room. He stands there silently as she closes the door, confused, and everything from the last months starts coming together.

It feels like a head rush. The fear he felt when she screamed, when she fell, when hurt. The guilt when she handed over the list to save him. The anger when she gave up a part of herself because she didn't want to lose him. The acid feeling in his gut whenever he saw her around Gil. The hurt when she pushed him away. The elation when she let him in. The want when she touches him. The need. The need. There was always need.

He needs her. He wants her. Oh god.

He's in love with her.

Ace almost stumbles. He feels like throwing up. Her voice asking him if he's all right is faint in the distance as he closes his eyes and lets the feeling pass. How long? How long has he been blind?

He opens his eyes and sees her looking concerned. He straightens as Nancy reaches out to him, and he puts his hands on her shoulders. She is lit up so gently by the light on the desk, her hair shining. Has he always known how beautiful she is? She stares at him in disbelief as he brushes his hand over her hair.

"Ace, what—?" she says.

He only manages to whisper her name once before he kisses her.